Bucket Head and The Cowgirl

Ava and Grace went completely nutso the moment Terry arrived home from work this evening. Although that's nothing new, the noise level in the house went up about 300% and insanity took hold of the girls. Grace ran around with a pink pail on her head (Ava enjoyed banging on it when she ran by) and Ava wore my necklace and bracelet and found a cowboy hat and yelled: "Howdy Pardner" and "Let's Get Ready For Our Guests!" Ummm, OK! Let's!

We sat on my floor in our bedroom and took pictures. Ava was 'country' dancing up a storm and Grace was running in and out of the bedroom squealing like a piglet. Don't mind the fact that Ava has no pants on. She's lucky she had a shirt on, today was, um... how should I say... C-R-A-Z-Y.

Night Night!

Dong Dong, Someone's at the Door

I knew it wouldn't be long before I was blogging about the Olympics. No, I'm not talking about Michael Phelps. Yes, he is totally rad and wins Gold in every flipping race, and Terry and I loudly cheer him on every night. I wear my cheer outfit and bounce around my pom-pons.... uh, that's a different type of discussion for a later time.

I would rather discuss a topic a little less mainstream than Swimming and Michael Phelps.

Trampoline.

That's right. We turned on the Olympics a little bit ago and sat stunned while we watched the introduction to the 'Olympic Trampoline' event. Um... I am a little bit concerned with what head honcho decided to include this event to be shown on such world scale. It's cool and shit in your backyard if you are 13, but not so much being 30+ and jumping too and fro in front of the bazillion peeps that are watching The Games.

Perhaps the Trampoline athletes didn't quite have the talent to join their country's counterparts in the Gymnastics Floor Exercise, because clearly that's where they belong. If you are doing triple flippy flips, double tuck and rolls and 3 and a half twisty ties, (or whatever the technical names for the skills are) you belong on the floor, not leaping around on a bouncy net.
The real gymnasts on the floor should get ALL the credit. They are on the floor having to run to gain speed to catapult themselves into the air. Trampoline-ist's have it SO MUCH easier when they get that kind of height to perform their twisty ties and flippy flips, and landing them too!

My astonishment with the Trampoline Event becomes even more apparent when China readies their Trampoline-ist to take stage. Dong Dong is his name, folks. You read me right.
Dong Dong. How in the hell did he get through life with that as his name? Do Chinese children not make fun and torture their fellow classmates when they come across a totally awesome name like that? I guess Dong Dong gets the last laugh, because as of right now, he's totally dominating and double-bouncing the asses of of all the other athletes.

End of the Week Recap

Wednesday morning I met Julie & Sheridan (and Julie's friend Sara and her daughter Natalie) for a morning filled with sprinkler park fun! All the girls had a blast, jumping, running and splashing around. Grace was hilarious, she was loving the freeeeezing cold water and would just hold her head directly in the water stream, never caring she had a face/mouth full of water afterward. Ava was a little more timid and was shocked by the cool temperature of the water. She just played 'around' the sprinklers. I'm not even sure she ever got wet... All the while I was IN the sprinklers chasing the littlest of my rabbits around, making sure she didn't drown or get trampled by another wild child.

Thursday morning I met some of the playgroup girls at the play scape at McD's, and all of our kiddos burned off some extra energy...we had a little lunch then headed over to see my sister at the salon. The girls caught up with their Aunt Nana and Grace and Ava played hide-and-go-seek with Zach in the backyard of the salon. After all of that we headed home for some very welcome naps. I did my due diligence by reading more of the book of the month, or I might have taken a nap. Uhhh... I can't remember which. :) The 26th is coming up quick... gulp.

Fast forward to Thursday evening. Julie hosted a CAbi show at her home and I went to check out the goods, and of course mingle with friends. The clothes were adorable, their fall line, I bought a beautiful little black jacket... I will have to wear it in about 4 months when it's cool. :)

On my way home from Julie's I called Terry to see if the power at our house was back on. A transformer blew about 5pm when I returned at 9, it still wasn't on. Terry had put the girls to bed in just diapers and shorts. Well, Grace wore that, Ava on the other hand told Terry she would get cold if she didn't have on a shirt for bed and so she wore regular jammies. Smart cookie. The power finally returned at 10:30pm. Thank the frickin' Lord. Everyone slept fairly well, you forget how much you take power for granted. It's a little bit of a necessity, ya know.

Enjoying a very late dinner by candle/mag lite. Ahh, romance. :)

Friday morning we went to my grandma's to play. Before we say good-bye, Ava always takes a stroll down the sidewalk with her great grandma, and I take a pic every single time. Grace is now old enough to hold hands and join in the fun.

On to tonight ~ my good friend Yvette hosted a purse party and I attended, to again, check out the goods and to see her new place as she has recently moved. So cute Y! It had been a long time since we've hung out, and we enjoyed the evening. I tackled my urge to go nutso and found some restraint...no purse for me.

After I left, I went to go see Tropic Thunder with Annemarie, some of you will not agree, some will, but I LOVED THE MOVIE. I love Robert Downey Jr., and Jack Black and OMEGA I nearly peed my pants every time they spoke. Annemarie thinks I'm a nutjob. It's nothing new. I can't wait to take Terry to see it, it's hilar.

Toodles. It's late and I need to spend some time with my darling hubster. He's been a doll letting me get out this week with friends and taking a break from it all. (No school the month of August)I think I'll make him breakfast and let him sleep in the whole weekend.

Get the Cryogenic Freezers Ready

10 signs you are aging - at least in my household.


# 10. There's Gas-X in your medicine cabinet.

# 9. Wrinkle cream is used every night. I double the dosage recommended.

# 8. 1:00pm feels like 1:00am when you have 2 kids under 3.

# 7. You go nowhere without concealer.

# 6. Bedtime comes right after your children go down. 8pm.

# 5. You throw your back out while playing golf. Terry.

# 4. You get neck spasms when playing in the lake. Kara.

# 3. Cereal choices are made by fiber content.

# 2. You don't know how you ever hit happy hour 4x a week.

# 1. Staying awake past 11:30p to watch the Olympics is pure torture.

Sagra - Cuba Libre - Pangaea (Good Times)

Melissa is in town from Minneapolis and she and Annemarie invited me out for dinner and dancing Saturday evening. Looking for a fun new place, we decided on Sagra. A lovely, quiet Italian bistro. Delicious food! Delicious drinks! Good times!

On to Cuba Libre for a few drinks before looking for a place to dance. After a while enjoying each others funny stories, we ran into Dana and some of her girlfriends. They joined the party and we all shared a free bottle of champagne. Me and Melissa are huge champagne lovers so this was great! :)

My shutter decided to malfunction on this one...

Now we were in the groove to dance and left for Pangaea to shake-it! This place has dance floors everywhere (we chose 5 foot wall to dance on!) and great music, loud bongo players, go-go dancers... tons-o-fun!!!

Had a great night ladies! xoxo.

She Bangz, She Bangz

This afternoon was a shear delight... and Grace was the mane attraction. Sorry. No more puns, promise. We took her to my neighbor Yvette's salon and after a few snippy snips, Grace could see again.

How on God's Green Earth, not one, but two of my children turned out with straight hair just baffles me. Ava's is technically wavy... that horrible hair in which the back hangs stick straight and the underside has ringlets. Not cute y'all. She's barely 3 so I am allowed to make fun. She might mind in 10 years if I openly criticise but since the word CHI has yet to enter her vocabulary, she's fair game.

My sweet parsnip.

(I messed it all up to make for a more interesting 'before' pic.)

Yay, my hair feels lighter already!

I'm picky about the top... O.K. it feels good.

I love my LaLa (Yvette)

Thank you Yvette for giving little Grace her first trim. She loves you and so do I. :)

Wordle Up

Thanks to Jenni for sending.

http://wordle.net

Excuse me... WHAT?!

Here's a new fad per my trusty news source.

Chocolate covered bacon.

Hmm. When I wake up in the morn, I do usually crave something crunchy. and fatty. and sweet. and silky. and greasy. All in one. Why YES! Pig meat with chocolate on top!

Honey get up! Let's go to the store.

Not so much.

Smoochy Fishy Face

Boss Hogg gives away kisses. All the while letting me know she's not 100% pleased about it.

OMEGA! A Lovely Little List

It's been a while since I made a list. Lists are good wholesome fun and I think it's time for a new one.

Things I'm Enjoying at the Moment :

-life on the D-List, Kathy Griffin. If I wasn't married and didn't have children and worked in show business and lived in L.A. ... she would be my BFF. She totally forgot to call and tell me she WAS IN AUSTIN RECENTLY FOR A SHOW. Poops.

-the jingle from the Jitterbug cell phone commercials. JITTERBUG!

-5:45 p.m. Monday thru Friday.

-the style in which Gracie eats Cheerios.

-finding Gracie's secret stash of Cheerios...in her diaper.

-bogle merlot.

-they fact that Strawberry Shortcake's movie keeps my kids entertained for so long, I can clean the entire house without distraction. Perhaps stopping once to read perezhilton.

-blue bell's great divide ice cream. Only because my all-time fav (Tin Roof) is 'out of season'. Peanuts? Chocolate fudge? Seasonal? I think not.

-viewing and re-viewing the 4 Kodak albums of pictures us girls took in Horseshoe Bay.

-the Two Corey's - sometimes I am so embarrassed for them, I can't bear to watch. It's that badass.

-wild China on the Travel channel.

-holy cow merlot.

- spending time with Katie, Brian and little Grayden while they are 'home' from Singapore!

-listening to Gracie call Terry "MA!"

-they way blogger spellcheck turns 'OMG' into 'OMEGA'. Makes me laugh.

-blackstone merlot

Happy Thursday ya'll :)

I'm Large and In Charge

So, I hope I don't scare the crap out of you with my huge face when you log onto my blog... I made some updates , and when I say "I", I mean Annemarie. She did all kinds of pointing and clicking and weird coding and stuff, but look at me! Now I'm LARGER THAN LIFE! Ok, that's all.

Thanks Annemarie!! :)

Toodles.

Tick Tock ... Tick Tock!

Go out and buy your popcorn and candy folks, we are only 5 days away from spectacular television!

I love the Olympics. There's nothing like cream of the crop athletes from 209 different countries showing the world their incredible talent.

Speaking of the Olympics and Beijing; tonight I found a show on the Travel channel called Wild China. The show spans everything from exploring nature/wildlife to facts about the country itself. Did you know there are over 700 million people living just on the eastern seaboard? With over 1.3 billion people total, China is the world's largest and most populous country in the world. And here I was thinking it was Iceland. Silly me. See what you can learn?? Listen to me: Set your Tivo, or DVR, or whatever recording device you utilize and study up on China before the games start. It's a fun way to get a few history/factoid lessons in with your kids while they are out of school, too. I've already forced Ava to watch, and now she knows snakes eat fluffy baby birds and the pollution in the larger cities is killing people. Uh, perhaps it's not so perfect for the tiniest of tots to view.

Turn it on and watch. You will be ultra-prepared for Friday, August 8th. I know I will be!

p.s. Here's a link to the competition schedule! I'm a dork and I am proud of it, so shut up.

Well, Shit. I guess I'm IT.

I got into a whole heap of trouble tonight. I think I just got my ass kicked. Via e-mail. Just before hitting the hay at 11:27pm I check my email and Jesus Christmas.... I get reamed. I will not say by who. Ahem. But Lord I was so scared to go to bed without posting the following information, the specific email had CAPS and everything. You know when someone uses CAPS in an email to you - it's the true sign of you being in deep shit. You are in deep trubb. You gone and done sumpin' wrrrong. Especially when they use caps to spell your name.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO YELL MS. YOU-KNOW-WHO-YOU-ARE.


What were you doing 10 years ago?
-I was working for Dell. 21. Diggin' single life and driving a .... never mind. I'm way too embarrassed to admit what I was driving. Next question.

Five things on my to do list:
-Be a good wife.
-Be a good mother.
-Be a good cat keeper. Ohhh No. I do mean that, but people might think that's weird so I will act like that's not important to me.
-Finish this flipping book I picked for August Book Club cuz if I don't it would be weird to have a happy hour, I mean meeting, and not have finished the damn thing.
-To be intimately close with Mirena. You will hear more about Mirena at the end of this month. Be patient my peeps.

What would you do if you were a billionaire?
-I would have my people contact Kathy Griffin and give her the million$ she deserves. I love you Kathy Griffin. Kisses-n-stuff.


Three bad habits:
-Forgetting to floss.
-Not finishing a beer completely.
-Giving Ava two jelly beans for going poo-poo on the potty when I promised her only one.


Five places you have lived:
-Only lived in one state. I'd rather not give out the city in which I live... hello weirdo blog stalkers I don't know. Go somewhere else and freak people out.


Five jobs you've had:
-Waitress to a bunch of old fogies at a retirement home.
-Mervyn's shoe sales associate (for 3 hours until I quit and ran out.)
-Commercial auto insurance sales.
-Secretary for The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Museum.
-Baby momma.


How did you name your blog?
Uh. My name is Kara. Toni calls me KaraLoo. What else would the inner workings of my blog be named. What's New With Kara Loo? I went with something very obscure and creative. I'm just smart like that.

Ode To Annemarie

A little poem for my friend I've now nicknamed The Travelin' Bandit.

It was way back in the day, about 8 long years ago,
I met my good friend Annemarie, she's a cool mo'fo.

Several years have passed, she's still my fun 'lil friend,
But lately I miss her cuz she's travelin' to no end.

Monday she's in Florida, then flies out yonder to Utah
Barely makin' it back to Texas to see me and yell "yee haw."

Onto Colorado she flies, you know she's a Travelin' Bandit
How she stays awake during the day - to her, you gotta hand it...

From a concert with friends here, to a work meeting there,
She's putting dots on the map and that's just not fair!

Seeing all kinds of places, like D.C., New York and Cali.,
We miss you here in Texas! Your friends are keeping tally.

So hurry your butt on home, and stop all this flyin'
Or I'll hack your beloved laptop and then you'll be cryin'

Cuz I'll delete your Google Calendar and then you won't be so jolly,
And when you finally get home you'll see I stole Molly.

We all miss you much and we just can't stand it,
We don't like your new job, we don't want no Travelin' Bandit.

Hawaiian Fusion & Mellow Jazz

Last night Terry took me to din din at Roy's restaurant. They have had the location here in Austin for a quite some time, I've just never had the chance to try it out. Roy's is Hawaiian fusion cuisine. I love love seafood and ordered the prosciutto wrapped tiger shrimp and when it arrived it was hard not to notice the gigantic sunny-side up egg directly on top. It all went together very well, I was delighted with the deliciousness of it all. Is deliciousness even a word? It was one of those dinners where you literally savor every bite you eat it's that good. Like that retarded commercial where that annoying big mouthed girl eats yogurt and says "It's like not catching the bouquet... good." You get the idea, mmm good. We were stuffed by the time dessert arrived but knew if dinner was that awesome, dessert would be too. All of a sudden the room cleared and I heard the sound of harps in the background, my hair began to blow then I realized! I'd taken a bite of our chocolate souffle and was in heaven. Fab din din.

Dinner ended early and we went looking for a place to sit back and chill with a drink or two. Several years have passed since we were last at the Elephant Room and we decided to spend the rest of the evening there, relaxing and listening to great jazz music. It was a fun, foot tappin' good time.

Mew Hew! Everyone Look How Cute I Am!

If you or anyone you know is on the market for a free male kitten... I am adorable and complete with that "new kitten stand up straight fur". My name is Pumpkin. I enjoy long walks in the hall and lapping cold milk. I'm a Gemini. I look demonic in my profile picture, the furball red-eye fixer thing screwed with my pupils. Don't be afraid. I'm not a demon.

Lions Are Talented

Happy Monday to all my peeps!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAJ8aH7ukIs

Don't Fret...

Looks like we're still a 4 top at a restaurant. Musta been the weather. Whew. I mean WHEW!

-thank you to all who prayed. :)

Are You There God, It's TIME TO STOP JOKING

Ok. So. Here's the deal.

My ears are popping. Gasp! How exciting! Except my ears popped the entire time I was pregnant with Ava.

and Grace.

and they are popping today. Let's all take a moment together and pray that my ears are just now equalizing (is that what they do?) from the flight... 3 weeks ago... let's pray that my ears are popping cuz I went scuba diving this morning and - only I DIDN'T GO SCUBA DIVING THIS MORNING.

Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Furious

Grace slept very late this morning and was in a terrific mood after we dropped Ava off at school. I wasn't yet ready to head home to sort/fold laundry, and I was craving IHOP crepes, so we went there for breakfast. Gracie was very well behaved, she played peek-a-boo with the grandma behind us and took on and off a purple heart bracelet, holding her arm up each time to show it off.

This is around the time I began my people watching. I love to listen to people and their conversations in a restaurant setting. I'm nosey and have big ears, and I think they help me pick up conversations that otherwise, normal people wouldn't catch. First off, I enjoy the IHOP experience, where else can you get pancakes with whipped cream and choco chippies on top? Plus, very interesting people eat there ~ if you know what I mean. Gotta love it. I ordered my usual, the International Passport, my waitress takes a few seconds after writing my order down then tells me, "we're outta crepes." Oh no you dih-int...you didn't just say that, that's totally why I drove all the way here! No biggie, I ordered the two by two by two... with pancakes, thinking of my daughter who would eat those with me.

As we are awaiting the arrival of our breakfast I'm hearing 3 different conversations... the first one involved someone having heartburn and they've tried like 3 different medications. Boooorrrrrring. The second was a young couple totally bad-mouthing one of their friends, how she's in a relationship they don't approve of and the guy is a total ass and she won't listen blah blah boo blah. They paused their bashing when Grace would turn around and wave excitedly their direction. The last conversation was the best. My waitress was getting rreeeammed for getting an order wrong. Some lady who just 'looked' rude, you know those people, they always have this upset look on their face... she was pointing at her plate and then pointing around the table, and it turns out she was simply devastated for ending up with -horrors!- hash browns instead of pancakes. Uh. OMG How ever will you go on with your day after an experience like that!? I'll tell you. You're at IHOP people. Nothing is over like $9.99. You are not ordering beef wellington, you are ordering eggs and pancakes and crap. Pancakes which come with an enormous ball of rock hard butter that isn't spreadable until well after you are finished with your meal. Not a fancy place, um-kay? It was like she found a decayed finger in her food, she was pee-o'd. The poor waitress was just standing there, I imagine wanting to deck this bitch, and after all of the yelling and pointing fingers the rude lady decides to just keep her hash browns and live with it. Umm-Why yell then? Why even bring it up if you won't let the waitress at least 'attempt' to make things right which is why you are bitching at her in the first place?

Grace and I finished our meal, picked up the sticky pancake bits scattered all over the floor and left. The waitress never knew that my eggs were waaayyy over cooked. I gave her a $3.50 tip for my $8 bill. I hope it made up for the tip the bratty hash brown lady neglected to leave.